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Lazarus, Langley Pitch Unique Universal Content Delivery At Upfront
It’s been more than one year since Jeff Shell was dismissed as Chief Executive Officer at NBCUniversal and the subsequent July 2023 naming of Mark Lazarus as Chairman of NBCUniversal Media and Donna Langley as Chairman of the NBCUniversal Studio Group and Chief Content Officer.
On Monday morning, both Lazarus and Langley put their respective imprints on a NBCU Upfront presentation that sent a clear message to marketers: Only NBCUniversal offers a one-stop shop with touchpoints across digital and linear properties consumed by Americans from wake-up to the end of their day.
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A Hispanic Media Ad Sales Veteran Joins Nexstar/Houston
A media advertising sales professional whose resume includes stints as SVP/GM for Entravision/Orlando and since March 2022 has served as President/GM of two TEGNA stations in Connecticut has been named VP/GM of Nexstar Media Group’s home for The CW in Houston.
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PBS to Provide Dynamic Local Audience Data to Member Stations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — PBS has received a “significant grant” from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to provide its member stations with Nielsen Local Dashboards, which give them access to in-depth audience data.
The dashboards, in particular, display local market linear television audience data that can give stations an enhanced understanding of the viewers they reach throughout the day.
Member stations will have access to an interactive dashboard, which includes critical audience metrics across all DMAs with PBS Member Stations. The dashboards will help stations understand their diverse and comprehensive audiences within their local communities, CPB says.
Nielsen Local Dashboards will be available to PBS Member Stations starting in late May, and similar data will be made available to CPB. PBS will have an exhibit at the PBS Annual Meeting today through May 15 in Las Vegas and hold multiple webinars this summer.
“Quality data helps us reach viewers where they are to build new connections to the content they know and love,” said PBS Vice President of Business Intelligence Amy Sample. “Our ongoing collaboration with Nielsen, thanks in part to CPB, now gives member stations a powerful new tool to understand their audience and local community impact. It will help build engagement with longtime fans while creating new ones.”
Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, added, “Public television stations’ strength is their connection to their communities, and these dashboards will provide valuable, detailed data to help the stations understand their audiences even better. CPB is pleased to fund this investment in local public media stations.”
For Paul LeFort, Managing Director of Nielsen Local TV, he believes Nielsen’s “unique capability to report PBS audiences across all platforms, including Cable Satellite, Over-the-Air, Digital & virtual MVPDs enables PBS Member Stations to demonstrate their engaged audiences to sponsors, underwriters, and community organizations more effectively than ever before. We are grateful to have the support of critical local media partners like PBS.”
Holm To Helm Cumulus’ Stations In Two Michigan Markets
The General Sales Manager for Cumulus Media’s five stations in Dallas-Fort Worth has just been appointed Regional Vice President/Market Manager for two of the company’s markets in Michigan.
He’s already settling in to his new role in the Mitten State.
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What I Heard During the Solar Event
Coronal mass ejections from the sun are plasma with magnetic fields. They can collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, causing the auroras that fascinate us. This is a well-known phenomenon in the amateur radio community because of the effect on radio propagation.
This month, astronomers told us a geomagnetic storm was coming a few days in advance. It was the biggest since 2005 but was not a remarkable visual display at my location in central Minnesota, some 46 degrees north of the equator. Thanks to Paul Bruegl in Battle Ground, Wash., for providing a dazzling photo from his neighborhood.
AM RadioThe event had a big effect on AM radio. As most Radio World readers know, AM stations can be heard far away at night because the three-layer ionosphere is 37 to 190 miles above the Earth. These ionized layers reflect medium-frequency radio waves back to Earth at night. The sun changes that so reflections do not occur in the AM band during the day.
KXEL Radio in Waterloo, Iowa sends its 1540 kHz my way with a two-tower 50 kW directional at night. Being about 300 miles away, it is not heard here during the day, but has a strong signal, almost as good as local stations, into my town at night. Its audio was non-existent during the aurora.
WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, Minn., 50 KW on 830 kHz, sounded that night just as they do during the day. They are 125 miles from my location. I normally hear selective fading of their signal at night.
What I am referring to is receiving a ground wave signal from the station, plus a signal that bounces off the ionosphere at night. The signals can combine in phase or can cancel when a time difference of .0006 milliseconds, or multiples of that, between the ground and sky waves are 180 electrical degrees apart. Selective fading creates obnoxious audio distortion for a few seconds and then is repeated again maybe a minute later. Timing of the fading varies because sky reflections vary in altitude. As mentioned, the WCCO night signal sounded like a day signal during the aurora.
Similar interference-free reception happened on semi-local stations, like KKIN(AM) in Aitkin, Minn., which runs 360 watts at night. They are 38 miles from my location. Co-channel beats and adjacent channel chatter were gone. They normally suffer interference at night but were fairly clean because interferers were not reflected down from the sky to compete with their signal.
Higher frequencies are less affected by reflections during the day. On the amateur radio side, I normally participate in a 75-meter (3908 kHz) net where operators from a five-state area check in on Saturday mornings to talk about contacts they made that week to foreign countries via ionospheric reflections. The band was absolutely dead during the solar event. No signals were heard. Even the noise level was low because random noise from elsewhere was not reflected down to my location. Things returned to normal a few days later.
Listening in the 120 through 16-meter (2.3 to 17.9 MHz) shortwave broadcast bands was nearly impossible during the aurora. Also, there were some reported accuracy problems with GPS signals during the event. I haven’t heard a total this time, but some 38 commercial satellites were reported lost in a 2022 storm.
HistoryA geomagnetic storm can stress the power grid to the point of failure. A 1989 storm induced unwanted currents in power lines causing a nine-hour blackout for 6 million customers in and around Quebec, Canada.
Then of course there is the story from 1859 when telegraph lines became unusable. At least one fire was reported from arcing and sparking at telegraph stations. That one was named the Carrington Event, after British astronomer Richard Carrington for his work in documenting solar flares.
You have likely heard that there is an eleven-year sunspot cycle where the sun goes from being quiet to active, then back again. We are near the active peak in cycle 25 of this documented phenomenon.
Geomagnetic storms have happened before and will happen again. Our increasing dependence on all things electrical for our homes, businesses and communications in our society has made us more vulnerable to Mother Nature’s whims.
Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@futurenet.com.
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What Were The Top LPTV Sales Of 2023?
How active is the low-power broadcast TV transactions marketplace? In 2023, there were plenty of deals. Now, a fresh analysis based on FCC assignment and transfer data conducted by Volker Moerbitz has painted a clear portrait of just how many LPTV deals were valued at more than $1 million last year.
The answer is twenty-six.
Moerbitz took a closer look at the low-power television stations traded across last year, and when it comes to deal values, an $8 million transaction involving the group led by Paul Koplin tops them all.
Koplin’s Venture Technologies Group in September 2023 announced that it was selling WHTV-LD in New York and WCHU-LD in Oakwood Hills, Ill., a suburb of Chicago.
MBX Wyoming Inc. said it would pay $8 million for the two stations, in a deal brokered by Greg Guy of Patrick Communications.
What is “MBX Wyoming”? It is a licensee linked to Manoj Bhargava, the 5-Hour Energy founder who has been building an owned-station group for NewsNet, the 24/7 all-news diginet based in Michigan.
As RBR+TVBR readers know, Bhargava and NewsNet parent Bridge News LLC have been active buyers of LPTV stations in recent months. Moerbitz’s research confirms that Bhargava — through MBX Wyoming — was the dominant buyer of low-power TV stations. In fact, only one other transaction involving a LPTV property was valued at $1 million or more that didn’t involve Bhargava as a buyer. That transaction, announced in late May 2023, saw Nexstar Media Group acquire WSNN-LD in the Sarasota-Bradenton market from Citadel Communications for $1 million.
The No. 2 LPTV deal in 2023 saw MBX Wyoming in April agree to acquire seven low-power TV stations from Gary Cocola and his Cocola Broadcasting Companies:
Call Sign Facility ID File Number Service City, State KJOU-LD 130272 0000213232 LPD BAKERSFIELD, CA KSAO-LD 34578 0000213233 LPD SACRAMENTO, CA KJEO-LD 20559 0000213234 LPD FRESNO, CA KWSM-LD 31355 0000213235 LPD SANTA MARIA, CA KKIC-LD 74409 0000213236 LPD BOISE, ID KMBY-LD 168787 0000213237 LPD Monterey, CA KKDJ-LD 41123 0000213238 LPD SANTA MARIA, CA
A $3.2 million purchase price was agreed upon by both parties. Tower lease agreements are included in the transaction.
By single-station valuation, the New York and Chicago LPTVs tie for No. 1. Right behind it is the MBX Wyoming acquisition of WVCC-LD in Westmoreland, N.H., from “Milachi Media,” led by Bill Christian. The deal, valued at $3.15 million, closed in October 2023.
Rounding out the LPTV deals in 2023 are, in order of total valuation, Bridge News LLC’s purchase of KSDX-LP in San Diego and KVPA-LD in Phoenix from Estrella Media for $3 million; Bridge News’ KUKC-LD in Kansas City and WUMN-LD in Minneapolis from Media Vista Group for $2.25 million; Bridge News’ purchase of KVVV-LD in Houston from the Philip Falcone-led Sovryn Holdings for $1.55 million; Bridge News’ acquisition of KUPU-LD in Waimanalo, Hawaii, from Hawaii Catholic TV for $1.5 million; and a pair of deals valued at $1.5 million that saw MBX acquire properties from Marquee Broadcasting and Image Video Teleproductions, respectively.
Salem Closes On Sale Of Ventura County, Calif., HQ
THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. — The media company known for its Christian-themed and conservative Talk content that in 2021 relocated to Irving, Tex., has completed the sale of its former Ventura County, Calif., headquarters, while entering a sale leaseback agreement with its new owner.
Salem Media Group sold its “principal office” in Camarillo, Calif., to Eclipse RE Holdings LLC, earning $5.5 million from the transaction, which closed on May 1.
Salem announced the closing of the deal on Friday.
Salem has agreed to a five-year leaseback of the approximately 41,546 square foot building situated on roughly 121,532 (2.79 acres) square feet of CPD zoned land. Annual rent is set at $500,000.
Stamford, Conn.-based Siena Lending Group on January 19 confirmed to Salem CFO Evan Masyr and General Counsel Christopher Henderson via electronic correspondence Salem’s decision to sell its building at 4880 Santa Rosa Road in Camarillo, Calif. And, Siena gave its approval to the sale, given its role as a major lender to Salem.
Indeed, Salem is a borrower of Siena, and 100% of the proceeds totaling $6,231,900 will be paid to it by Salem. This will offset a new $26 million three-year asset-based revolving credit facility established between Siena and Salem on Dec. 26, 2023. It marked a return to Siena from Wells Fargo Bank, which happens to have a branch directly across the street from the Camarillo building.
Sitcom, Talk Show Veteran To Host 2024 Gracie Awards
LOS ANGELES — An actress known for her role as a teenager in the sitcom Sister, Sister and in more recent years for her six years as a talk host on The Real has been chosen to serve as the host of the 49th annual Gracie Awards, scheduled for May 21 at the Beverly Wilshire.
Tamera Mowry-Housley will take the role for this year’s event, presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.
The Gracies honor exceptional achievements in media dedicated to women, by women, and about women across diverse platforms in news and entertainment.
As previously announced, the 2024 event will see actress and comedienne Kristen Wiig present Carol Burnett with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
Entertainment will be provided by “Fight Song” singer Rachel Platten.
This year’s content themes are centered on “Feminine Strength, both Large and Small,”
highlighting impactful actions resonating on various scales.
Townsquare Media Shareholders Easily OK Three Directors
Townsquare Media shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the election of three individuals who will serve as members of its Board of Directors. One of the three individuals earning fresh three-year terms is a former Emmis Communications SVP who also oversaw broadcast radio properties for AMFM Inc. and Chancellor Media.
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Modularity Is a Boon to 21st Century RF Engineers
The Radio World ebook “Transmission 2024” explores trends in the design and feature set of today’s broadcast transmitters.
Rich Redmond is president and chief operating officer of Elenos Group, parent of Broadcast Electronics. He is responsible for its operations in the Americas. This interview is excerpted from the ebook.
Radio World: Rich what do you consider the most important changes or trends in this area of radio technology?
Rich RedmondRich Redmond: The key transmitter trends are highlighted in two areas, one around the operations of the transmitter, and the second around maintenance and repair.
From an operational aspect, broadcasters around the world are looking for economies including space, energy efficiency and flexibility. Transmitters are getting smaller with more power in less space in part due to advancements in RF device technology like LDMOS and Silicon Carbide, and innovative new power supplies that provide over 95% AC to DC efficiency with nearly 5 kW of power that fits in the palm of your hand.
New software-defined modulation solutions allow broadcasters to have more capabilities than before, and the flexibility to switch from analog to digital, and even change digital formats all with the press of a button, not to mention advanced real-time correction algorithms that can maximize power output and minimize energy consumption.
As the broadcast engineering skillset globally evolves, there are fewer technicians who can and have time to do component-level troubleshooting in the field. Transmitters need to, and are becoming, more modular to allow for simple module swaps and powerful diagnostic software that provides step-by-step troubleshooting both locally and more importantly remotely, via IP connectivity; all to match today’s smaller and more IT-centric technical teams.
RW: When your customers are considering a purchase, what key questions do you recommend they consider?
Redmond: The first step is to really understand your objective and the type of service and location of the transmitter you need to purchase. Do you need today or in the future digital capabilities like HD Radio? How important is energy efficiency, how much space do you have at the site and how does the transmitter fit and allow you good access for servicing? How simple will the repair be in the future?
All of these points help you decide how important the transmitter features and attributes are for your environment and application. When you distill all your needs and wants versus the various options offered, the real questions are: Will it reliably deliver my content and be cost-effective to operate? And can I get service and support for the long term?
RW: How will software-integrated air chains change how we deploy transmitters?
Redmond: Software plays an ever-growing role in any transmitter, from monitor and control to program transport, and to RDS, HD Radio and audio processing. Software certainly offers more flexibility, and integration offers the promise of lower costs. The trade-off is reduced redundancy as more functions of a station air chain are on the same platform.
RW: What role does Simple Network Management Protocol play now?
Redmond: SNMP has long been used in managing telecom networks, and most of the largest transmitter networks in the world rely on it every day as part of a network management software system. SNMP offers the ability to eliminate hardware at the transmitter site for monitoring and control and simply connects all your devices over an IP network that can talk to an array of software solutions that provide powerful monitoring, control and service ticket management.
Forward-looking broadcasters can leverage this approach to have greater management of not just transmitters but also other devices like UPS, IP network equipment, backup power generators and other apparatus.
The United States still has a high reliance on old-fashioned dedicated hardware “remote controls” due in part to the legacy FCC rules. SNMP allows broadcasters to look beyond hardware-based, broadcast-only solutions for more flexible options that run the world’s largest IT and telecom networks based on cost-effective software platforms.
RW: Do supply chain issues still affect manufacturers?
Redmond: The global pandemic and a number of untimely fires at micro-chip plants hit the electronics supply chain over the past few years, impacting not only the delivery times of components but also accelerating the discontinuation of a number of legacy parts.
All of these factors have affected every maker of electronic devices, and broadcast suppliers are no different. Lead time for components, while improving in some cases, is still generally not back to the pre-pandemic state.
In the case of the Elenos Group, we have not only proactively engaged with the supply chain to place large purchases for parts to move forward our place in the delivery cycle, but we have undertaken a number of redesign efforts to make changes in hardware designs to use more readily available and newer parts.
For example, we have totally redesigned our software-defined modulators that create the digital modulation for all analog and digital FM, VHF and UHF TV standards. All these steps are moving us closer to a point where shorter lead times can be achieved again; we expect to see further improvements in 2024.
RW: What level of efficiency can users expect from the class of transmitters that you make?
Redmond: Across the Elenos and BE lines of FM transmitters we regularly deliver over 76% AC to RF efficiency, including the new Quick Block modular transmitter platform.
RW: What is your stance on water-cooling designs, and why?
Redmond: The Elenos Group makes both liquid- and air-cooled transmitters and has for many years. In some situations, liquid cooling offers a number of benefits by efficiently evacuating heat from the transmitter plant, but it also adds more complexity and additional systems to manage and service.
With the very high efficiency of FM transmitters, we find in almost all cases that air cooling provides a good balance of simplicity, energy efficiency and reliable operation. We see the largest benefit for liquid cooling in the higher-power DAB digital radio and Digital VHF and UHF TV transmitters, all of which operate at much lower efficiencies than their FM counterparts.
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MLB Pro Partner League Signs Gray TV Broadcast Deal
Select games from a Major League Baseball Partner League that operates in nine states and one Canadian province are coming to over-the-air broadcast TV stations across the Midwest and to three local sports networks recently launched by Gray Television.
Coming to the Gray properties are games associated with the American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB).
Arizona Family Sports in Arizona, Peachtree Sports Network in Georgia, and Silver State Sports and Entertainment Network in Nevada will air regular season games on a weekly basis. Gray’s television stations in Mankato, Minn.; Rockford, Ill.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa will air games from AAPB teams located in or near those respective markets.
Gray also intends to air the AAPB All Star Game over-the-air across more than a dozen markets on Tuesday, July 23.
With Gray Television “committed to live sports,” COO Sandy Breland says the AAPB agreement provides “another example of ways we are providing viewers what they want with live sports.”
Formed in 2006, the AAPB is comprised of 12 member clubs, with many beginning play in 1993. Teams include the Winnipeg Goldeyes and teams in the U.S. in markets as large as Chicago and as small as Cleburne, Tex.
By the end of 2023, over 55 players with American Association experience had made their debut with MLB clubs after having first played in the American Association.
AAPB partners include PPG, Rawlings and LED lighting solutions company Midstream.
Another Big Week At Spot Cable For Progressive
When it comes to the amount of activity at Spot Cable one of the standout automotive insurance specialty brands has committed to, it’s easy to say that the “Flo” has been steady for this company.
Indeed, the continued use of Spot Cable has made Progressive a leader across 2024, based on Media Monitors data.
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Radio Broadcasting Services; Canadian, Texas
FEC Can Be a Double-Edged Sword
A current Radio World ebook explores trends in codecs. In this excerpt, Anthony Gervasi, Intraplex sales manager for GatesAir, offers insights.
Radio World: What do you consider the most important current or recent trend in how broadcast codecs are designed or deployed?
Tony Gervasi: The addition of SRT to audio codecs, and the ability to embed E2X data within the MPX payload to keep FM/HD1 synchronized on all transport paths.
RW: What are the implications of FM-MPX and microMPX for the way the radio industry chooses and deploys codecs?
Gervasi: There are variations of FM-MPX codecs, some that provide uncompressed MPX with RDS in 1.64 Mbps (rather than 2.2 Mbps or 3.2 Mbps) by using effective data packing. This reduction in bandwidth allows for MPX to be transported via 950 STL as well as LTE and satellite.
MicroMPX using 384k for compressed MPX with RDS allows for transport over slower connections as well as the ability to transport more than one over a traditional STL system.
RW: How do today’s codecs integrate with today’s AoIP networks and infrastructures?
Gervasi: Having the ability to ingest and output AES67, Wheatnet and Livewire allows the codec to show up on the cross-matrix routing software as a native appliance, allowing audio and GPIO to be steered and transported from site to site or from site to many. This also allows audio that is not in an AoIP format to be ingested into the AoIP network and routed accordingly.
RW: How do today’s codecs avoid problems with dropped packets?
Gervasi: A few different methods for UDP paths — one, by deploying redundant streams using path and/or time diversity to assure reliable transport, and two, by deploying FEC with buffering.
For TCP/IP paths, by using Secure Reliable Transport or SRT.
RW: Why is Forward Error Correction important?
Gervasi: FEC can be a double-edged sword. When using a RTP over UDP, adding 25% FEC with the proper amount of buffering can eliminate most minor packet losses due to path changes, micro path interruptions, etc.
If you are on an oversubscribed switch or system, adding FEC can make things worse. When troubleshooting packet losses and drops and the customer is running uncompressed audio at 44.1 (1.58 Mbps) with FEC, I will have the customer change to Opus 192 kbps with no FEC and see if the packet loss or drops lessen or get eliminated.
If the packet loss stops, this tells me that there is a bandwidth choke someplace, which could be a switch or an oversubscribed sub. By adding FEC to the data stream, you are adding additional payload and contributing more to the oversubscription.
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PPM Finds Its Way Into Audio Processing
A new Radio World ebook explores “The Software-Based Air Chain.” This is an excerpt.
Nielsen’s Audio Software Encoder decouples the company’s PPM encoding algorithm from the hardware encoder and instead makes it available for integration into third-party broadcasting equipment. When the software is incorporated into a station’s audio processing, it can add the enhanced CBET code to the audio stream.
Nick Mannion is director of product management at Nielsen; he has responsibility for its audio measurement portfolio including the Portable People Meter and diary collection systems.
Radio World: What is Nielsen’s interest in the software-based air chain?
Nick Mannion: First some background. Every station included in PPM measurement gets an encoder that places a watermark in the audio played over the air. Then we recruit a representative sample of panelists who carry around PPM, like the one I’m wearing here on my wrist. It picks up the code, logs it and sends the data back to Nielsen, where it’s tabulated and then projected back out to the population.
Typically, watermarking at the broadcast facility has been done by a piece of hardware that Nielsen — and Arbitron before it — provided to the stations. But working with the NAB Radio Technology Committee and its PPM subcommittee, led by Jason Ornellas of Bonneville, we developed a software encoder that takes the brain out of the hardware and makes it available in a software development kit for any vendor to integrate into their product.
At Nielsen, we’re agnostic on the question of virtualization. Our goal is to measure everybody in PPM markets equally, whether they are virtualized or condense their hardware onto an on-prem server. We need to make sure we’re providing solutions so that they can be measured with that PPM watermark.
RW: The software kit is available to any technology company that wants to integrate it in their product?
Mannion: Essentially yes, with a little bit of paperwork and NDAs. We now have 18 certified integrations including Orban, Omnia and Wheatstone. We have focused on audio processors because PPM typically sits in an air chain near the audio processor. On our engineering portal, stations can see which products are certified for Nielsen PPM encoding.
RW: How does one get certified?
Mannion: A company requests our SDK to integrate into their platform. Nielsen’s engineers work with them to understand what their product does. Then we develop extensive test criteria to make sure the PPM encoding coming out of the product is equivalent to what would come out of a hardware encoder, so that no station has an advantage or disadvantage. We develop a technical requirements document and hundreds of test cases — different ways you can set it up — and we make sure that you can’t, for instance, inadvertently route around the PPM encoding.
Only then do we give them a certification, a license to distribute the Nielsen Audio Software Encoder to radio stations.
RW: What are the most common concerns you hear from stations?
Mannion: This is something new; and when it comes to something like PPM encoding, which is critical for a station’s revenue, some groups or engineers are more hesitant to change than others.
Many prefer to start on their station streams. We measure streams separately from the AM and FM; and we see broadcasters getting comfortable with the software encoder by dipping their toes in first using their streams, before they jump to their big AMs and FMs.
RW: Was it technically difficult to assure that the software iterations were as reliable as the hardware?
Mannion: Not really. We run a battery of tests anytime we make a change in PPM or encoding. At our office in Columbia, Md., we have a critical listening room where we run exhaustive tests across all types of formats, content, processing volumes, background noise, etc.
We make sure the SDK puts out a good robust watermark, then we go through that certification process, looking at an individual product’s integration, including the battery of more than 100 test cases.
After our initial rollout, we also conducted field tests on AM, FM, HD and streams. That data is shared openly with the Media Ratings Council as part of our audit requirements.
Last but not least we have a multi-channel encoding monitor that allows stations to look at the performance of their watermark minute by minute across their day, so they can see they’re getting the same level of performance.
It’s in our best interest as well as the client’s to make sure they have a robust watermark.
RW: How many stations have switched?
Mannion: Around 500 streams in PPM markets have made the switch. Fewer so far on AMs and FMs. As I said, some are kicking the tires right now. But from my time spent at the NAB Show and meeting with various engineering leaders, as they look to virtualize their playout, this is where they are going. There are early adopters, and I think we’ll have a lot of fast followers who are just waiting and see how the early adopters fare before they jump in. That’s true not just in PPM but virtualization as a whole.
RW: What is the potential universe of users? If you put one encoder on every AM signal, every FM signal and every HD multicast, plus every stream version of those signals, that must be 25,000 or 30,000 potential encoder points in the United States.
Mannion: Keep in mind that we measure with PPM in the top 48 markets. At the peak of the hardware encoder, we had about 13,000 pieces of hardware out at stations. Some stations have primary and backup encoders; some have a “doomsday path” to air, for emergencies. But as to the size of the potential universe, I’d say it is around 5,000 stations or streams.
RW: Anything else we should know?
Mannion: The readers of Radio World, particularly readers of this ebook, are the people who are thinking about virtualization and cloud. What I’d like them to know is that Nielsen has options for them today, and that we’re a willing partner to work with them on the future.
Read more about how software is remaking the broadcast air chain in the latest Radio World ebook.
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Iconic Denver Newscaster Rick Sallinger Dies
A veteran news reporter for KCNC-4, the CBS owned-and-operated property serving Denver, has died of natural causes at the age of 74.
Rick Sallinger passed away on Wednesday evening. He began at what is today “CBS News Colorado” some 30 years ago, and became known to national audiences for reports that aired on network newscasts.
A Chicago native, Sallinger worked in London for CNN in 1990. This came following a career that included roles as a local news reporter for ABC affiliate WRTV-6 in Indianapolis in the late 1970s, at NBC Owned Stations’ WMAQ-5 in Chicago, and at both KUSA-9 and KCNC-4 in Denver.
He first came to Denver in 1980 and left in 1986, but he returned in 1993.
A video tribute to Sallinger was shared by KCNC on Thursday afternoon.
On X, formerly Twitter, Sallinger’s family posted a message on his profile noting, “We are heartbroken. For 30 years he was a devoted journalist in Denver. He loved every second of it. He was the best father to his two sons and a loving husband to his wife of 30 years. We love you endlessly.”
As WRTV noted in its coverage of his death, Sallinger made his mark “through his no-nonsense approach to reporting often seeking answers and accountability while the camera was rolling.” This included bugging News Director Bob Gamble’s office and calling out WRTV for failing to shovel its own sidewalks after a snowstorm.
In 1979, he even had a little fun, offering WRTV viewers an investigative story on McDonald’s cherry pies.
Audacy Cites “Improving Results” in First Quarter of 2024
Audacy expressed satisfaction with its latest financial results. The company reported net revenues in the first quarter up 1% compared to the period a year earlier, with radio revenues down 2% and digital up 10%.
But it called attention to its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It quoted Chairman David Field: “Audacy delivered a solid start to 2024 with Q1 EBITDA increasing 173% vs the prior year. Second-quarter revenues are currently pacing up low-single digits, and we expect another quarter of substantial EBITDA growth, enhanced by our continuing work on expense reductions.”
Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $9.6 million, compared to $3.5 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Field said its “improving results” are mostly attributable to “a significant acceleration in digital revenue growth, continuing meaningful revenue share gains, and declining expenses as our transformational investments bear fruit.”
The company is waiting on FCC approval of its pre-packaged Chapter 11 reorganization, with Field referring to “our best-in-class balance sheet,” among other assets.
On the technology side, Field said Audacy continues to invest in modernizing its Ad Tech Platform “to drive sales efficiencies in support of our digital business.” He noted that the company had announced a partnership with Super Hi-Fi “to upgrade our 700 digital Exclusive Stations and streamline our programming, production and broadcasting capabilities,” and another partnership with AI company ElevenLabs “to enhance our production processes, freeing up our creators to focus on building the exceptional content and experiences they expect from Audacy.”
He also noted the launch of Audacy Podcasts, retiring Cadence13 and 2400Sports as standalone brands while retaining Pineapple Street Studios as its production studio; and the creation of Audacy Sports, which consolidated its broadcast, digital and podcast sports assets under one name.
The company reorganization, once final, will bring a new Audacy board including the banks that cooperated to reduce Audacy’s $1.9 billion debt down by nearly 80% to $350 million. Soros Fund Management will become the broadcaster’s largest shareholder.
The post Audacy Cites “Improving Results” in First Quarter of 2024 appeared first on Radio World.
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